Audio Column by Sukey Howard

Michael Palmer has the prescription for medical thrillers down pat. And The Last Surgeon, Palmer’s 15th in this popular genre, capably narrated by the versatile John Bedford Lloyd, proves that this doctor-turned-writer hasn’t lost his razzle-dazzle, nor his concern with medical/ethical issues. This action-packed, action-paced Palmer production stars Nick Garrity, a talented surgeon...

Audio Column by Sukey Howard

Harry Bosch cares more about the victim, murdered and voiceless, than any other crime fiction cop I can think of and that's just for starters. Harry may joke about the way of the true detective, but he does his damnedest to follow it. In Michael Connelly's 11th Bosch-based, polished procedural, Echo Park, Harry, working in the Open Unsolved Unit, is still haunted by the 1993 murder of Marie...

Audio Column by Sukey Howard

Sports may be the only real meritocracy we have, and Michael Oher's rags-to-riches, real-life Cinderella saga (it would take a canoe-sized glass slipper to fit this foot) is as compelling an example as you'll find. The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Moneyball Lewis chronicles what happened when a huge, hugely talented, homeless, black, unschooled Memphis teenager was taken in by an...

Audio Column by Sukey Howard

Expanding his range, Michael Connelly has entered the legal thriller-diller arena with a winner. The Lincoln Lawyer, effectively read here by Adam Grupper, introduces listeners to Mickey Haller, an appealingly flawed, super-cynical lawyer to the lowlifes. He operates out of the backseat of his Lincoln Town Car, taking on anyone who has the bucks to pay. Mickey's not concerned with innocence or...

Audio Column by Sukey Howard

Waiting in the wings these past six years hasn't diminished Robert Backus, aka the Poet, the brilliant FBI profiler who became what he profiled: a stealthy, savage serial killer. He's center stage again in The Narrows, Michael Connelly's intricately plotted sequel to his bestseller The Poet. Backus has just left a calling card a desert grave with the remains of nine missing men. But that's...

Audio Column by Sukey Howard

<B>Don't mess with Mother Nature</B> That may be a gross simplification of the cautionary message in <B>Prey</B>, Michael Crichton's latest blockbuster, but he does make it perfectly clear that the cutting edge may slice in deadly and unpredictable ways. In swift cinematic style, heightened by George Wilson's narration, we see what can happen when obstinate egotism,...

Audio Column by Sukey Howard

LAPD detective Harry Bosch is a good cop and a good guy. He's tough, serious and wants to make a difference in this indifferent world. If you haven't met him before, you've missed out, and if you have, you know you're tuning in to prime time crime. City of Bones, the latest in Michael Connelly's Bosch series, gets high marks from me. A dog finds a bone; the dog's owner,...

Coming soon to a theater near you

Who doesn't love to be able to walk out of a holiday blockbuster and say, "Well, not bad but the book was better"? Get a jump on the season's upcoming films by reading the great books that inspired them, several of which are available in new editions. It would be impossible to read the entrancing prologue to The Hours by Michael Cunningham and not keep going. The novel,...

Audio Column by Sukey Howard

erous first daughter At the very beginning of Brad Meltzer's Washington thriller, The First Counsel, Michael Garrick, a young lawyer and proud two-year veteran of the White House Counsel's office, reels off a litany of his fears from heights to disappointing his father. But, he tells us with youthful bravura, he's not afraid of power he loves it. When Nora, the darkly beautiful daughter of the...